Josh McDowell once spent one thousand hours studying the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is certainly an important subject, of course, but why did he spend so much time on it?

He wrote in his book The Resurrection Factor that he had been a student leader in college. He was in a “frustrated search…for the true source of happiness and freedom.”

While there he met a group of eight students and two faculty members who were followers of Christ, and who said that Jesus had changed their lives. In one discussion at the student union, McDowell said that Christianity was for unthinking weaklings, not intellectuals.

Then he turned to one girl and asked “Why are you so different? What changed your life?”

Without hesitation she replied, “Jesus Christ.”

He shot back, “Don't give me that kind of garbage. I'm fed up with religion. I'm fed up with the church. I'm fed up with the Bible.”

She came back just as quickly: “I didn't say religion. I said Jesus Christ!”

McDowell accepted the challenge of the group to examine intellectually the claims that “Jesus was God's Son,” and that the stories of the life, burial and resurrection were all true. He was pre-law, and he figured he had learned a thing or two about gathering evidence. So he set out on a serious quest to prove that it was all a hoax, a fable, a myth. That was his goal. But he was stumped because he couldn’t explain one crucial event in history--the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He even dropped out of school for a time so he could travel to Europe and study in their libraries. He thought that if he could prove that the Bible wasn't reliable, then the whole story of Jesus' resurrection would crumble.

But he came to one conclusion: “If I were to remain intellectually honest, I had to admit that the Old and New Testament documents were the most reliable writings in all of antiquity….I had to admit that Jesus Christ was more than a carpenter. He was all he claimed to be.”

In his research, he discovered “compelling, overwhelming evidence for the reliability of the Christian faith.” He trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and his life changed dramatically as he experienced the power of the Risen Christ.

You don’t have to study the subject for one thousand hours. Accept it by faith today, and discover the New Life and Hope in Jesus.--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com